I spoke to an x-rite support tech, and the direction of the conversation rather quickly got to sending in the device for calibration and possible overhaul. I'd much rather get feedback from iSis owners with experience with the device prior to doing that.

I've got an older iSis scanner/spectro that I purchased NIB on eBay, along with NIB PMP5-PhotoStudio. The original owner apparently purchased several, and never opened the one he sold to me. It came in the original package, sealed. There were still original orange packing tape strips on the device. The thick plastic protector sheet for the scan-head was in place. So far, so good.

The included "Certificate of Performance" was dated Feb 27, 2007, which was quite a bit older than I expected. The serial number is #307 and version/build "A". It didn't come with OBC gray cards, which I understand weren't originally included. Overall, it seems to be working ok, but I've yet to be able to make good profiles.

My understanding is that newer iSis devices come with version / build "E". My speculation is that at least some of that is updated firmware.

Sometimes I can be "penny-wise and pound foolish", or have "more dollars that sense".

Depends if you got a good deal on it I guess... for a NIB or used you'd have to factor roughly $500 - $1000 to bring it up to the latest revision (if required), recertify it if it was drifting and purchase the upgrade OBC hardware/software that you'd normally get with a new one. All that could negate savings from purchasing in the first place brand new I guess. I had a look at it recently myself however looking more likely that the costs of a 2nd hand iSis vs a new i1 Pro 2 (which does handle the new UV included/excluded measurements) would make more sense to get the i1 Pro 2 instead.

It's definitely buyer beware on the 2nd hand market (particularly say i1Pro's) due to the mess of licensing (particularly i1Match modules for i1Profiler upgrades), accessories included and recertification costs. You can get good deals here and there but still pretty difficult to navigate properly. Ie getting a 2nd hand i1Pro that enables a cheap i1Publish Pro 2 Upgrade A or B can be had however can be hard to get precise info on which one would support that.

You can tell a bit about how well an iSis is doing by the sounds it makes scanning. I've got one that has literally measured tens of thousands of patches and it's louder than the newer RevE I have that's still a pup. I've been on site with other iSis units that sound just awful in terms of the 'gearing'. Not a good sign. Keeping the unit in a clean environment helps a great deal. On a press floor, measuring targets all day, an iSis can end up sounding like an old sewing machine.